


Decades

by Xhafsn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28954782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xhafsn/pseuds/Xhafsn
Summary: Leo visits New Rome with his newborn daughter. It's a pity one person won't get to know her for a very long time.
Relationships: Jason Grace & Leo Valdez
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Decades

As I landed Festus in the Field of Mars on this warm July day, I can't help but look at the mass graves that were dug ten years ago. They couldn't even properly bury all those casualties from the Triumvirate War. Even today, Camp Jupiter and New Rome has a much smaller population than a city of this size.

Once in a while, I come by to visit. Usually, it's because the legacies of Vulcan need someone to train them, and who better than the most powerful son of Vulcan around. Well, Hephaestus, but these days, we don't make a big deal about Greek or Roman. On the few occasions we encounter outsiders like Percy's friend Carter, we just say we're from the Olympian pantheon.

Today, I brought Calypso, who is holding and adjusting the face mask on our six-month-old daughter. I'm amazed that I made it to age 26 (27 only six days now) and have a wife and a kid. Just maybe I'll get to see her grow old enough to remember me, if this pandemic spares her and me. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about one person I always visit when I'm in New Rome.

"Cal, you know what I do every time I come here," I say. "If it's too much for you, you can just take Alicia to see some of the others who live here."

"Of course," Calypso says. "She's sleeping so peacefully right now."

I walk Calypso and Alicia to Percy's villa in New Rome. Annabeth had really outdone herself in designing their house. It's a beautiful suburban house in Neo-Roman style. I have had my arguments with her designing it, me being an engineer and her an architect. It especially didn't help when she was pregnant and hormonal. In any case, I designed her electrical and monster-proofing system, and it's held up for the last three years. After saying a quick word to Percy and Annabeth and watching their little boy play with my daughter, I head to the place of my ritual.

On the other side of town, there is a very large set of new buildings. One of those is a tomb. It's not as grand as the rest of the buildings. Most of those were new temples to the gods, especially minor ones, but in my opinion, they gave the least impressive building to the one most deserving. I walk into that tomb.

In the middle of that tomb is a statue so life-like it gives me chills. They got every detail of him right. Neatly-combed blond hair, sky-blue eyes, and even that little scar he had from eating a stapler. He has his Camp Jupiter t-shirt and a toga on top, along with his tattoo. His powerful build and signature weapon seems to project power from the center of this building into the main town. It is a good piece of sculpting, but it's also such a painful reminder of who this man used to be. Of all the ways they could've honored him, they chose this grotesque depiction.

"Jason," I say, talking to the statue, irrationally hoping it's a conduit to his soul in Elysium. "Hey, old friend.

"A lot has happened since I last visited. Cal and I have a daughter now. I have my own engineering firm. Camp Jupiter finally finished the last project you designed. Those plans were so difficult to make happen. You were almost as bad as Annabeth in that way."

I chuckle a little, pretending it's totally normal to talk to a statue.

"Life is looking great right now. All of us are still here, which is bad for you, but we are amazed at how merciful the Fates have been to us. Frank and Hazel are expecting their firstborn later this year. Percy and Annabeth are having twins! Piper is a bit wilder than the rest of us, being a singer and all, but she's hasn't seemed so carefree in years. Nico and Will are good too. Reyna has quit the Hunt and came back to New Rome, much to Artemis's dismay, but she's finally found who she is. Thalia, your sister, is still the Lieutenant.

I pause for a moment, making up responses Jason could've said to me in my head.

"Of course, it's not the same without you. Ten years, Jason. Ten years ago, you left us. We never even got to see each other again. I guess the Fates spelled it out very clearly for us that it was never going to happen. When I came back to life, you had to go down. It's been the way forever. What made us think we could bypass Fate?

"Ten years seems like a long time go, and in many ways, it is. I was a short stick of a boy ten years ago. I was perpetually single. At times, I believed I could have legitimately died alone and unloved. Now, after a few years on and off with her, I married the girl of my dreams. I'm not short anymore. I'm living well, the best I've ever been. Yet, I still remember our questing days like it was yesterday. Our visit to Boreas in Quebec. Our run-in with cyclopes in Detroit. Aelous in Chicago. Us getting flung to California, where you met Thalia again. Our days on the Argo II. All of that, I remember crystal-clear. The last days we spent together.

"It's just so, so incomplete without you here. We were the Seven, the most powerful Olympian demigods on Earth, bar none. We saved the world multiple times. Yet, as powerful as we are, we can't cheat death, at least without consequence. You were supposed to be married to Piper, with a career, kids, and somewhat normal life like the rest of us. The remaining six of us spent the rest of the decade honoring your memory. I just hope that you'll still be there in Elysium, waiting for any of us."

I pull out a few offerings from a magical lunchbox: wine, tacos (made exactly like the ones I made on our quest) brownies from the bakery. I also leave a few denarii, although I suspect he has no use for money in the Underworld.

"Happy Birthday, Jason."


End file.
